What Makes A House a Home?

So, after running our first Facebook giveaway (www.facebookcom/theminerscouch), with the question ‘what makes your house a home?’ , reading all of your answers got me inspired to think about what does make a house a home…

Some of you may have read a previous blog of mine, about renovating our farmhouse, and I guess what has made our house a home starts with the fact that it was created by us! All of our dreams, ideas, our hard work, our pets, even the odd tiff, has made what we have today.

I guess I looked at our house as a shell, it might’ve been dilapidated and inhabited by number of wild creatures, but it was just sitting there waiting for someone to love it and fill it with family, love, laughter, hand me downs, special new items, photos, colours, textures… all these things that portray the people that live in it and the lives they lead.

When my parents decided to sell the family house we had grown up in, in order to build a new home, I have to say we were all a little sad. So many memories were made there, it was hard to imagine life in another place. Everything was packed up and once again the house was just a shell, awaiting its new owners, new people to fill it and create a life in it.

Meanwhile, my parents finished their new house and we all set about shifting their much loved goodies into it… it was during this time, as we watched the new shell come alive, that I realised a house on its own is not a home, but whatever shell you choose to set your family and life up in is what turns it into a home. My parents’ new home is now just as full of memories and fun times as was our previous home.

When thinking of my own special home we have created on our property at Redwing, my entry for the giveaway, what makes my house a home, in 25 words or less, would be:

‘It’s the peace, it’s the quiet,

It’s the beauty in the silence.

It’s the love, it’s the laughter,

And the happy ever after.’